General Assembly: Press Release

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) on 10 June.

Normans Penke, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on 10 June.

Park In-kook, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, was elected Chair of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on 10 June.

José Luis Cancela, Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 10 June.

Ali Abdussalam Treki was elected President of the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 10 June 2009.

Countries bound by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will meet in New York on 24 September to explore practical means of strengthening efforts to protect the rights of the 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide, as disability rights have gained new ground since the Convention’s 2006 entry into force.

The twenty-first United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will be held in Niigata, Japan, from 26 to 28 August. Hosted by the Government of Japan and the City of Niigata, the Conference is organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific.

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission has welcomed a report by the Secretary-General on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict, delivered to the Security Council today. The report follows a request from the Security Council last year and is part of a series of related initiatives aimed at consolidating and strengthening the United Nations response in the area of peace and security.

Domestic violence, political participation, discriminatory family law, eliminating stereotypes and preventing trafficking will be among the areas explored by a committee of 23 experts charged with ensuring that Governments eliminate discrimination against women, when it meets in New York from 20 July to 7 August at United Nations Headquarters.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene a United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 22 and 23 July 2009 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the Meeting is “Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza”.